Green Turtle

I think I had envisioned us staying at Double Breasted for longer, but we got weather reports indicating that a tropical LO might be developing right over our heads bringing winds from possibly any, or all, directions upwards of fourty to fifty knots.  Being anchored just a few yards off rocks on one side and a few yards off a sandbar on the other side didn’t seem like the ideal spot so we booked it on out and sailed to Manjack Cay and then onto Green Turtle Cay and tucked up into White Sound for some all-around protection.

The forecast stalled and then fell apart and we ended up with nothing but some squalls and a lot of rain.  We were thrilled with the rain. The deck got scrubbed, the towels got rinsed, the water tanks got filled overfilled, every bucket we owned got set out, we rinsed ourselves, we rinsed the dog.  We may have rinsed him a little too much.  Cruising changes how you view rain 🙂

Green Turtle Cay is an adorable quiet settlement filled with rental cottages, cute shops, and delishious smelling bakeries.  So colorful and pretty in a pink and turquise with a white picket fence kind of way.  It was even prettier when I found that I could get wifi in the anchorage, (which is how I finally got the last several posts up).  It disappeared intermittently when the boat swung and I lost it completely after the weather moved through, but it made me quite a happy camper for a short while!  I hate to admit how much I have missed it.

Besides walking around the town and peeking into every shop and chasing a weak wifi signal from bow to stern, we had a good few days of meeting new friends and old.  We had a wonderful evening meeting three new cruising couples and sharing drinks and appetizers all while laughing maybe a bit too hard at a boat trying unsuccessfully to pick up their mooring ball.  Then we ran into our long time friend and old finger-pier neighbor Darryl and Debbie as they were anchoring.  A terrific surprise. We invited them over for conch and hogfish after the rains subsided and they invited us over for a yumm-o breakfast the next morning.  I love that breakfast with friends-on a weekday-is so natural now.  

Our friends, new and old, all headed south after the threat of any weather dissipated.  We headed north just a few minutes back to Manjack Cay.  We weren’t done diving just quite yet and Manjack has been a favorite of ours.  Within ten minutes on our first dive, we had our limit of conch and a hogfish in the bucket. Guess what is for dinner?  Actually, the next day Keith switched it up a speared a Margate for dinner, we liked it too.  Variety is supposed to be good for you. We haven’t even made it out to the reefs yet, that was all in the cuts between the cays they have some pretty neat snorkeling. I got most excited about seeing the tentical of an octopus in a hole and a moray eel.

Back on our first night at anchor at Manjack, when we were on our way to Green Turtle, we were so relieved that for the first time since Florida we were not going to be anchoring in a crazy current.  No water rushing along the hull all night, no tide changes, just a quiet peacefull night that we could sleep all the way through. You do know where this is going right?  

Around 1:30: BUMP.  Keith and I flew out of bed, down the “hall”, and up the companionway expecting to see that we hit or were hit by something.  Nothing.  Keith yelled at me to turn on the depth sounder, maybe we were hitting the bottom.  BUMP.  I ran back down the companionway, which is a six step ladder by the way, and flipped on the breaker, just as Keith was telling me to hurry-up and come here!  Back up the companionway (ladder) to see what was attacking our boat.  Two dolphins.  We could see them perfectly with our stern light and the full moon and we could see every blade of grass and urchin on the sand below us.  There were two of them, one bigger than the other, and for about ten minutes they kept swimming under the stern of out boat.  They would take several breathes, swim under and blow lots and lots of bubbles.  Sometimes they bumped the boat.  We both got dolphin spit on us.  We could hear their clicks and squeaks and if we had wanted to we could have easily touched them from the swim platform.  At the time we didn’t want to, we were still trying to figure out why it seemed they wanted to attack our boat.  Finally Keith saw the smaller one swim out from under the boat with a fish in his mouth.  Then they left.  That was a lot of work for one fish!  Keith said it wasn’t even that big.  

So last night was our first night back here in the same anchorage since we went to Green Turtle and we were awoken last night by a big burst of bubbles under our bed.  Keith woke up and said “they’re back”, I grabbed my camera and ran up the companionway but they didn’t hang around.  I have my camera ready just in case they come back tonight.  I like my sleep, but it was a too-cool moment..

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